NICVD’s satellite centres across Sindh will remain under provincial govt, says Dr Azra Pechuho

All the satellite centres of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) from Hyderabad to Sukkur are now part of the Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (SICVD) and these hospitals would remain in the administrative and financial control of the Sindh government.

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho made the declaration to this effect in a statement issued on Monday. “The Sindh government established several cardiac-care hospitals in various cities of the province, including Hyderabad, Sehwan, Mithi, Tando Muhammad Khan, Nawabshah, Larkana, Khairpur and Sukkur, and they were linked with the NICVD in Karachi. But these institutions are part of the SICVD, which was established through legislation passed by the Sindh Assembly,” Dr Azra said.

She said Sindh was willing to give back the administrative control of three health facilities in Karachi — NICVD, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and National Institute of Child Health — to the federal government but in that case, the federal government would have to reimburse the amount Sindh had spent on these institutions.

The health minister claimed that the budget of these health facilities was enhanced 10 times after Sindh took over them after the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment in 2011.

Dr Azra’s statement came after the federal health authorities initiated the proceedings to take over the three health facilities by allocating over Rs14 billion in the federal budget for these institutions.

The federal health authorities also issued a letter to the administrations of these three institutions telling them not to make any appointment or make any changes without seeking permission from them as these institutions were now under the administrative and financial control of the federal national health services ministry.

The Sindh health minister lambasted the federal authorities for assuming the control of these institutions, saying that as per the judicial directives, the federal government should adopt a proper legal course to take over these institutions and it would be advisable that a person from the Centre assume the control of these institutions through a notification.

Dr Azra maintained that the Sindh government still believed that health was a provincial subject and these institutions should remain under the control of Sindh for which they had already filed a review petition with the Supreme Court. If the federal government was willing to take over these institutions, it should do it as per the law and in accordance with the apex court’s directives, she said.

“We believe that after assuming the control of these institutions, the federal government would continue to enhance budget of these institutions so that quality health services and facilities are available to people free of charge,” Dr Azra said.